Egotism

For the 1843 short story, see Egotism; or, The Bosom-Serpent.

Egotism is "characterized by an exaggerated estimate of one's intellect, ability, importance, appearance, wit, or other valued personal characteristics"[1] – the drive to maintain and enhance favorable views of oneself.

"In egotism we find the person filled with an overweening sense of the importance and qualities of his personality...the things of the 'Me.'"[2] Egotism means placing oneself at the center of one's world with no concern for others, including those loved or considered as "close," in any other terms except those set by the egotist.

Contents

Characteristics

Egotism is closely related to "loving one's self" or narcissism - indeed "by egotism we may envisage a kind of socialized narcissism."[3] Egotists have a strong tendency "to talk about themselves a great deal...in a self-important fashion";[4] and egotism may include "a grandiose sense of self-importance...arrogant, boastful, conceited"[5] and self-promoting even at the expense of others – "refusing to recognise others for their accomplishments."[6] This conceit is a character trait describing a person who acts to gain values in an amount excessively greater than that which he or she gives to others. Egotism is often accomplished by exploiting the sympathy, irrationality or ignorance of others, as well as utilizing coercive force and/or fraud.

Egotism differs from both altruism - or acting to gain fewer values than are being given – and from egoism, the unremitting pursuit of one's own self-interest. Various forms of "empirical egoism" can be consistent with egotism, but "egoistic behavior refers to actions that are primarily motivated by self-interest...without [necessarily] having an over-blown sense of self."[7]

Although "no one really likes criticism because it shrinks our ego a bit,"[8] as a rule and in particular "egotists do not take criticism well...sometimes display 'narcissistic rage' in the face of criticism or insults."[9]

Development

It is normal for an infant to have an inflated sense of egotism - "'His Majesty the Baby'... 'His Majesty the Ego.'"[10] The "attitude that the object exists only for the ego's satisfaction...can still be observed in some childish forms of love." as can the "high evaluation of one's own ego."[11] The "baby is everything as far as he knows - 'all-powerful'. And every step that he takes towards establishing his own boundaries and limits will be painful because he'll have to lose this...omnipotence."[12]

Where development is optimal, a gradual reconciliation to a more realistic view of one's own place in the world may be possible - "and as our swollen heads get smaller... as people we grow."[13] Failure to adjust satisfactorily however may later lead to "defensive egotism... 'a compensation or defence against a negative or fragile self-concept.'"[14] The resulting "'egotism' means not giving equal importance to the wider perspective – the one [where]...your ego is still there, but it's taking its proper limited place among all the other egos."[15]

Sex

"There is a kind of egotism which is primarily sexual. There is a kind of sexuality which is fundamentally egotistic."[16] Thus for example, after one naked ambush, "'What brought this on?' I ask. 'I needed you,' she says, with the kind of innocent egotism that a cat could only envy."[17]

The claim has been made that there can be "the genuine transfiguration of egotism by love":[18] as Freud put it, "a person in love is humble."[19]

Etymology

The term "egotism" is derived from the Latin ego, meaning "self" or "I," and -ism, used to denote a system of belief. As such, the term is etymologically related very closely with philosophical egoism.

Cultural examples

"Of all Jane Austen's heroines, Emma Woodhouse is by far the most egotistical... an unrealistic opinion of her own abilities."[20] She certainly has "more than enough egotism for the forgivable follies of youth";[21] and "her deeply ingrained egotism"[22] provides much of the motivation for the book's action.

"Keats attacked Wordsworth for regressing into 'the egotistical sublime'... the solitary bliss that accompanied 'the egotistical sublime.'"[23]

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Egotism, the protagonist is dominated by "a tremendous Egotism, manifesting itself in your case in the form of jealousy... diseased self-contemplation."[24]

See also

References

  1. ^ Robin M. Kowalski ed., Aversive Interpersonal Behaviors (1997) p. 112
  2. ^ William Walker Atkinson, The New Psychology (2010 [1909]) p. 30
  3. ^ Samuel D. Schmalhausen, Why We Misbehave (2004 [1928]) p. 55
  4. ^ Kowalski ed., p. 114
  5. ^ Kowalski ed., p. 113 and p. 111
  6. ^ Mark R. Leary, The Curse of the Self (OUP 2007) p. 91
  7. ^ Kowalski ed., p. 113
  8. ^ Robin Skinner/John Cleese, Families and how to survive them (London 1994) p. 81
  9. ^ Kowalski ed., p. 121-2
  10. ^ Sigmund Freud, On Metapsychology (PFL 11) p. 85
  11. ^ Otto Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (London 19460 p. 38 and p. 57
  12. ^ Robin Skynner/John Cleese, Families and how to survive them (London 1994) p. 91
  13. ^ Skynner/Cleese, Families p. 63
  14. ^ Kowalski ed., p. 224
  15. ^ Robin Skynner/John Cleese, Life and how to survive it (London 1994) p. 241
  16. ^ Schmalhausen, p. 34
  17. ^ Charles Stross, The Atrocity Archives (2007) p. 71
  18. ^ Schmalhausen, p. 153
  19. ^ Freud, On Metapsychology p. 93
  20. ^ Jane Nardin, Those Elegant Decorums (1973) p. 109
  21. ^ Ronald Blythe ed., Emma (Penguin English Library) p. 13
  22. ^ Nardin, p. 117
  23. ^ Henry Hart, Robert Lowell and the Sublime (1995) p. 30
  24. ^ Malcolm Cowley ed., The Portable Hawthorne (Penguin 1977) p. 177

External links

Types
Characteristics
Defences
Cultural types
Related articles